Thursday, January 12, 2023

Mirrors and Chess

Mirror Self-Portraits, Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1556) & me (467 years later).

(I didn't know about S.A.'s portrait, I just liked the celadon green of the bathrooms at the bakery café where Marz works, when I went there yesterday.)


The Latin on S.A.'s disc, above, reads: “The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, [ipsius manu ex [s]peculo depictam] at Cremona.”
The watercolor is a miniature: 8.3 x 6.4 cm (about 3 x 2.5 inches).
She was born around 1532, so she'd have been about twenty-four.
Nice illustrated article about her life as a painter of the Italian Renaissance here, at sm(art)history.

Now some girlettes are learning chess so they can recreate the painting The Chess Game (Portrait of the artist’s sisters playing chess), 1555, for Toys Recreate Paintings.
All toys are welcome to join the game.
(Knowledge of chess not required.)


This painting of girls at chess appeals to me. I never finished the toy recreation of Leonardo's lady w ermine. A pal had wanted to do Leonardo, so I'd chosen that painting, but I wasn't much motivated by it, beyond the initial set up.

4 comments:

  1. I very much like your selfie. You are a woman I would meet and think, "I believe we could be friends."
    I also like Anguissola's painting of her sisters playing chess. Another artist I'd never heard of. Her self portrait is also very fine indeed.

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  2. Her painting is breathtaking..

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  3. The Chess Game is a favorite of mine. I love how it breaks the rules observed for most of the solemn family portraits made in the painter's times.

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  4. FRESCA here
    MS MOON: thanks! I haven’t seen a good clear photo of you—post some?

    GZ: so breathtaking!

    TORORO: yes! The little sister laughing—seems she’s been caught in the moment!

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